The Warriors Of Chaos
by Yami Insomniac
Summary: Four friends set out to see new places. On their own and far from home, they've moved to Domino City, and find themselves entered into a city wide tounament? Who here knew they even played? A turn in their adventure they didn't plan or expect awaits them.
1. Setting The Stage

_Five Thousand Years Ago-- The world was not as it is today.  
It was a world full of Chaos and Turmoil, that not even the great Pharaoh's of the time had enough power to keep under control.  
  
No longer able to watch as those who worshipped them suffered, four of the great Egyptian Gods had to intervene.  
They would send warriors gifted with the strength of the Gods to aid the Pharaoh and protect the world.  
  
Each of the four Gods chose a warrior based on their strength, purity, and determination.  
Once chosen, the Gods would put a little of their essence into the warrior they favoured.  
This would give the warriors the upper hand in their battles, and an edge over the evils from the shadow realm.  
  
For a while, this seemed to work and the world was safe.  
Evil was beaten back and the shadows faded.  
That is, until one fateful day when out of the shadows came a force so powerful that not even the warriors with the Gods power could withstand it's strength.  
One by One they fell to the pure evil that radiated from this dark creature, leaving only the Pharaoh to stand between the safety and total destruction of the world.  
  
Five Thousand Years Ago--The warriors were summoned by the Pharaoh to fight along side him to banish the darkness from all corners of the world, and to keep peace amongst the people of his kingdom.  
The warriors did more then aid the Pharaoh, they also fought for him along side him, protecting him.  
  
Five Thousand Years Ago--Four great warriors died giving their very lives to protect and save the world.  
A noble death amongst any._

_Five Thousand Years Later--The Pharaoh has returned as prophesized and with him the dangers of the past._

_Five Thousand Years Later--The warriors are needed once again.  
With the power of the ancient Gods and the wisdom of a thousand years, the world needs the four to fight and protect it from the ever increasing threat of the evil from the Shadow Realm._

_Will the four warriors answer the call and return to their duties, or will the stain of time have made the great warriors forget who they really are, where they come from, and just what they are needed to do.  
  
Only time will tell, for if the warriors have forgotten, then the Pharaoh will stand alone.  
Alone the Pharaoh will fail and the world will be plunged into a world of eternal shadows....so says the not very well known story.  
The story of the Warriors of the Gods....._


	2. Sushisushisushi! and sleep

_"We Praise thee oh great Sun God, for you have blessed us with a bountiful crop this season. You are good and you are pure, we thank thee every day for our blessings...."  
-Morning Prayer_

It had been Three Weeks since the move to Domino city, and the weather had been unnaturally hot, but no one really cared that much.  
  
Sunlight filtered through the thin tan blinds and across the hardwood floor of the small room. A room just with enough space for the double bed, medium sized desk, shelf unit, closet and night stand that decorated it.  
  
With a loud groan, the form in the bed rolled over on to her side trying to keep the sun from further disturbing her waking slumber. A loud rapping at the door didn't come as much help to this growing problem, and made her groan again, pulling the sheets over her head in an attempt to block out both the sound and the light.

"C'mon Amber! Wake Up! C'mon you can't stay in there forever!" came a feminine tone from behind the door,  
  
"Yes I can. Watch me." Amber shouted back pulling the pillow over her head and rolling onto her other side again still trying to block out the sound of her friends pounding on her door.

"Amber! It's 2 PM! Time to get up!"

"Don't make us come in there." came a second voice outside the door, masculine this time.  
  
"Are you sure that'd be safe?" Amber called from under the pillow

"Where's Ali, let's send her in there." the female stated, talking more to the other friend then to Amber now

Amber groaned once again the sound of her friends pounding on the door. This was starting to give her a headache. Throwing off her sheets and blanket she tried to sit up using her elbow for balance only to find the edge of the bed much closer then she liked and ended up falling off of the bed with a great 'THUD'.  
  
There was silence for a long moment as Amber lay on the floor, looking up at her ceiling, and after a second or two more beginning to laugh hysterically. Giggling some more and rolling over, further tangling herself in her bed sheets, for some reason she found this the funniest thing in the world at the moment.

Out side the door, Holly and Chris, the two of Amber's friends and roommates, looked at each other with the same confused look.

"Amber, did you just fall out of you bed?"

Chris smiled as he herded Amber's laughter, looking at Holly, who is leaning against the wall trying not to join in Amber's insane laughter as well.

"It seems Amber has a problem getting out of bed." Amber said as she opened her door.  
  
Both Holly and Chris look down to find that Amber had dragged herself to the door, still tangled in her sheets.  
  
Red in the face from laughing so hard, Holly has tears in her eyes and is holding on to the door frame for support now.

"You're both Freaks." Chris stated throwing his hands up in the air with a shake of his head before turning and walking down the short hallway to

the kitchen.  
  
Once there he finds a short note scribbled and left by Ali earlier that morning, before anyone else had woken up. Sitting down on one of the cold steel chairs he re-reads it for a lack of anything better to do.

'Dear Everyone,

I've gone to the Library to get out some Cultural and Samurai books. Don't wait around for me, I'll probably be gone most of the day-yay! A real Library, not like that dinky small one from our town.

Anyways, see you all around dinner time.

Signed Ali'

Giving a small chuckle and tossing the note back down on the table, Chris looked up just in time to see Amber stumbled into the kitchen, her hair still all over the place and her kitty cat pj's a wrinkled mess, one pant leg was rolled up just above her knee."Hungry...I want sushi." she said opening the small fridge and leaning into it before standing back up with a frown across her tired face. "Well that sucks." She grumbled shutting the fridge door with more force then she'd ment, knocking some stuff off the top of the fridge. "Chriiis."

"What?"  
  
"I want sushi."  
  
"So?"

"Get me Sushi?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm too lazy to go out to the store to get it?"

"Well, be un-lazy then."

"Go get your own sushi."

With an all to common glint in her eye, Amber took the three steps it took to get from the fridge to the table, as she began to raise her arm. Chris saw her coming and was off of his chair and out of the way of being poked before she got there.

"Hey! Get back here." Amber pouted  
  
"No."

Still to tired from having just woken up to continue trying to harass Chris, Amber sighed turning back to her hunt for food. She looked around the cupboards for but when she didn't find anything she sat at the table opposite end of the table from Chris with a 'humph'. "We don't have anything to eat, an I'm hungry."

"Well, it's holly's turn to do the shopping, you can go with her when she goes."

"When's she going?"

"I have no idea. Why don't you ask me these things?"

"Hoooolly!" Amber shouted spinning towards the kitchen door,

After many moments of silence they looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

"Maybe she's gone already." Chris suggested with a shrug but Amber shook her head as she prepared to push herself away from the table when Holly's head peeked around the corner. She looked wet and rather unhappy to have been summoned to the kitchen.

"You know I was taking a shower...what is it?"

"Sushi! Want." Amber replied

"Well, I'm going out soon."

Amber frowned "I want sushi now."

"Can you wait about ten minutes. You're not even dressed yourself."

"...So?" Amber grinned starting to giggle as she looked down at herself.  
  
Chris slammed his head against the table causing both girls to look over at him.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Sushi?" Amber said giving a shrug still grinning as Chris took up hitting his head against the table repeatedly, only making the girls giggle more.

"Why, oh, why did I put myself threw this?" he asked rhetorically

"Because you wanted to get away, and my aunt had offered to board and pay for us for one year while we settled in and got our own jobs." Holly said with a grin, she had one hand out and was making a mocking movement with it like some old school teacher. Still grinning she then dashed back down the hall, leaving a wet trail across the floor as she went, just causing Chris to groan again.

It was a few hours later that both Holly and Amber were walking through the small grocery store, picking out what they would have to eat for the next week. Amber had already put more then her share of food and goodies in to the shopping cart. It was full of Pocky, Ramen, and other, what she called, singsongly 'the bear necessities of life'. While Holly was trying her best to be mature and responsible by getting the food that would keep them full for a longer time then pocky. She had a large bag of rice placed in the cart, followed by various meats, vegetables, and fruits. They were just leaving the store with their five massive bags of food when something bright caught Amber's eye causing her to stop suddenly to read it, making Holly bump into her and almost drop the vegetables and rice.

"What is it?" Holly asked looking over

"It's a flyer...something about Duel Monsters...or..."

"Let's see." Holly said putting down her bags taking a closer look over at the flyer that Amber was staring intently at, both were still not very good at reading Japanese and could only make out every other word. They were both bent over looking like old people who needed glasses.

"It says, a city wide tournament, will be held this coming week, all duellists who want to participate are asked to sign up at the nearest gaming shop. The grand prize is a trip for four to any where in North America. The cut off date for entries was today." The two girls spun around to find a boy about their age who had spotted them trying to read the flyer standing behind them, also holding bags in his arms.  
  
He smiling politely at them, his dark eyes seemed to sparkle from the florescent lighting, but what was strange about his appearance wasn't the fact that he was wearing a navy blue school uniform, but that he had the strangest hair. It was longer then most of the boys they had seen, going past his shoulders and the colour of it was quite strange. It seemed so pale a blonde that it looked white in color. It looked natural but either of them had seen someone that young with that colour hair, and he didn't sound very Japanese.

"Er,.. Thanks. We were having a real hard time there with that character." Holly pointed to the poster, the boy only smiled back,

"That would be a difficult one. So, where do you girls come from? Are you just visiting or are you on an exchange programme?" the boy asked

"Oh, we moved just here." Amber said pointing to Holly who was still looking at the boy with wonder.  
  
He tilted his head slightly and looked from Amber to Holly and back again. "Well, it's always good to see some new people around here. I hope to see you both again." he said shifting the weight of the bags in his arms and began to walk off.

"Wait, what's your..." Holly let her question trail off as the boy had already gone out the sliding doors and she didn't feel like chasing after him to ask him for his name.

"C'mon, I want to get back and eat some sushi! I haven't had breakfast yet." Amber stated picking up her bags again and beginning to head out of the store, pausing only when she noticed that Holly wasn't following her. She turned back and gave Holly a funny look. "What is it?"

"I have a feeling I've seen that boy somewhere before...but I can't remember where."

"Probably someone who looks like him walking down the street."

"How many people have you seen here that look like that?"

Amber gave a shrug, "Not many, but then again, we haven't exactly gone out a lot now have we? Anyways, he was shopping here so I'd assume he probably lives nearby. You've probably seen him walking around."

"Your right Amber...let's go." Holly said grabbing her bags and following Amber out. Though she still couldn't shake the feeling that she had not only seen the boy before, but had met him before as well. She shook her head and deciding that it was probably just her imagination running wild again and that she shouldn't think anymore of it.

"Sushi! Sushi! Sushi!" Amber chanted happily as she bounced down the street, Holly laughing loudly as she followed her friend, luckily they didn't live too far from the store and so they didn't need to carry the heavy bags that far. It was Obvious that the two friends would have fun when they got back, and hopefully Ali had returned by then so they could tell her of their strange experience. it was too bad that it was too late for any of them to enter the tournament, it would have been fun to have participated in. A test of their true skills.

Back at home Amber finally had her sushi and was enjoying playing with the remains of it as Chris laid on the living room sofa reading a book, Holly lay on the floor not too far from him writing a new story. The three stopped what they were doing briefly at the sound of the door opening and the familiar thud, thud, thud of Ali's shoes as she entered.

"Hey you. Find any interesting books?" Chris asked glancing up from his book. He paused raising a curious eyebrow when he noticed that Ali was holding a large box in her hands. "What's that?"

Ali shook her head in an 'I don't know' way, and by this time both Amber and Holly's interests had been peaked as they slowly made their way towards the box. "It was on the front stairs when I came home. It's addressed to all of us." she said placing the box down on the floor.  
  
Holly looked at it as if it was about to bite her and shuffled away quickly. "What if it's a bomb?"  
  
"Then we go boom." Amber stated smiling with a shrug

"Holly, why would there be a bomb on your front porch?" Chris asked with a slight sigh shaking his head at Amber as he put his book down and inspecting the box himself. "There's no return address. Nothing to even indicate who sent it or even what it might contain."

"Let's open it!" Amber said pouncing at the box, knife in hand. Instinctively the other three friends leapt back, as they knew that Amber with a knife was a dangerous combination. She slid the knife through the cardboard and with only a little trouble and managed to open the top. Dropping the knife on the living room table, Amber poked the box, when she decided that it wasn't going to explode she leaned over it and looked into it-leaping back with a large gasp. Grabbing Chris's shirt she shoved him towards it.

"Hey! What the...what is it? What's in there?"

"Look!"

"I'd rather not.."  
  
"Look!"

"Oh, I'll do it." the three watched as Holly moved towards the box peeking over the edge into it, the expression on her face changed from fear to bewilderment as she reached in and pulled out a duelling disk, holding it in her hands and looking to the others. "You guys,. as far as I can tell, this is real..." she said, running her fingers along the metal frame, before she strapped it onto her left arm.  
  
Ali then moved forward looking into the box and pulling out a small computer typed letter. "Here, listen to this,. Dear friends, if you are reading this then the package arrived to you safely. In it is four duel disks, four duellist I.D. tags, and four duellist com's. Please take great care, you four are now entered into the Domino City Tournament. Please join the other participants at the clock tower by 10am sharp on the morning of September 5th. From there you will be given further instructions and instructions on how to use your duellist com's. Enjoy, and hope to see you all there. Sincerely, your Friend."

The four looked at each other in silence, they hadn't talked to very many people in the three weeks they had lived there, and they hadn't had the time to go into great detail about their lives, and especially the fact that they all were duellists from North America, they hadn't told a soul about anything of great importance. None of them had entered the tournament, as they had just learned of it that day.  
  
Holly looked down at the duel disk on her arm as it beeped and hummed. They were all thinking the same thing.... Who in Domino City knew that they were duellists? and why had someone gone out of their way to enter the them in this tournament?


	3. Friends Indeed

_"To the Great and all powerful Gods we sing our praise, for they are good and they are wise. They guide and protect us in our darkest hours, for when our time comes, it is the Gods who judge us..."  
-After Noon Prayer_

On the other side of Domino city three boys wearing the same dark blue school uniform walked down a street in the dark, they had just come out of an arcade.  
  
The shortest of the three laughed as he listened to his friends talk about the new video game they had just finished playing. They had spent too much money on it and were now moaning about being broke.  
  
The three were Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, and Yugi motou.

All three of them went to the same school, and were the best of friends, which is why Tristan and Joey had dragged Yugi to the arcade with them. Luckily they had run out of money, it was growing late, forcing the three to retreat home for the night.  
  
"I can't believe I came that close to beating the last boss! Stupid machine!"

"What are you talking about, Joey? You were having your butt royally kicked." Tristan stated as Joey glared at him,  
  
"I'll show you who's having who's butt kicked!" Joey shouted loudly making a lung at Tristan. The two fell to the ground in a heap.

"Real smooth Joey." Tristan said shoving Joey off of him and began to stand up, brushing dirt and leaves from his cloths.  
  
"Hey Yug, what's with the face?" Joey said drawing Tristan's attention to Yugi, who turns smiling widely at them,  
  
"Oh, I'm just thinking of the tournament. I can't wait! I think it sounds exciting."

"Yea. It's a good thing you and Joey entered. Today was the last day to it."

"I'm gonna show the whole world who is number one!" Joey proclaimed shoving a fist into the air, "No offence Yug, but I'm going to beat you in the finals this time!""Come off it, Joey..." Tristan rolled his eyes as Yugi only smiled at his friends.  
  
"No, Tristan. I'm going to beat everyone. Including that jerk Kaiba."

"What makes you think Kaiba's even going to enter this tournament?"  
  
"Tristan. It's Kaiba we're talk'n about here." Joey said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Tristan sighed shoving Joey away from him.  
  
"Hey!" Joey shouted looking hurt before breaking in a fit of insane laugher, getting strange looks from the passers-by.  
  
"Er...Joey, could you keep it down?" Tristan mumbled grinning in embarrassment to some old couple who looked appalled by the sight of Joey's actions. Yugi just continued to watch two of his best friends as Tristan tried to get Joey to calm down, with little to no progress.  
  
"I can't wait the one extra day until the tournament starts! I want to duel now!"  
  
"Don't be too hasty, that's how you loose."  
  
"Nothing like a little faith in your friends, huh, Tristan?"  
  
Tristan gave out a frustrated sigh turning away from Joey who had returned to declaring that he would beat out Kaiba and duel Yugi in the finals. Yugi grinned up and watched his friend parade around in a circle.  
  
"Joey, all you need is a pink dress and you could wear that to the tournament."

"Waddya mean!?" Joey said turning serious and glaring at a now smirking Tristan  
  
"I mean your acting like a fairy."  
  
"Fairy!? I'll show you who's the fairy!" he shouted swinging to punch Tristan, but Tristan, having seen it coming, managed to dodge the hit causing Joey to loose his balance and fall out onto the street and land in a large dirty puddle of water. He sat there looking up at Tristan and Yugi, who were both laughing their heads off.  
  
"That's what the great duellist gets!" Tristan said between laughs.  
  
Suddenly finding this very un-amusing Joey leapt to his feet, splashing the other two with water and glaring daggers at them both.  
  
"It's not funny! this' dry clean only!"  
  
"That's why it's so funny!" Yugi snickered, getting a dark look from Joey.  
  
"That's it! Your both gonna get it now!"

"Run for it!" Tristan yelled as He and Yugi dashed off with Joey chasing after them looking like some sort of Frankenstein monster. Both Yugi and Tristan were laughing the whole time they ran from Joey, who was yelling at them for being unsupportive friends and that they should stop running so he could show them what he thought of them at the moment.  
  
Across the street stood a woman with long blonde hair. She shook her head as she watched the three run out of sight, and gave a sigh pulling her arms around herself, looking up at the still darkening night sky. "Another tournament, where I get to kick some kids butt..." turning away from the street she walked into a small cafe, it had gotten cold very fast, which was odd, especially after the heat wave they had been having.


	4. A Prelude Duel

"_As the Sun sets on our blessed land, we look back on our day and thank the Gods for blessing us with Good health and fortune. As we turn to our beds to sleep, we pray to the Gods to protect our children and souls from the creatures that lurk in the dark. To Ra, who protects us, to Osiris we give our thanks, To Horus who guides us, and to Anubis who we admire. In thee's presence we bow and give thanks....."  
-Evening Prayer_

"You're not actually planning on going to this tournament, are you?"  
  
"Of course not."  
  
"Good."  
  
"We finished the planning and have already decided to go."  
  
"What!? Has all your brains all gone to mush!?"  
  
Amber giggled loudly at her friend's outburst. She was on the phone to her friend Devon, also Holly's Cousin, who was currently telling Amber how insanely stupid it was to go to a tournament that none of them had entered and to set themselves up for any trap that may be laid out for them. Amber had reminded Devon that they had no enemies and thus wouldn't have to worry about anyone wanting to do any harm to them, but first and foremost she had reminded him that yes she was still insane. This all didn't stop Devon from trying anyways,  
  
"I have to go. It's uber long distance you know. Bye!"  
  
"Don't go!" was the last thing heard over the telephone receiver before Amber hung up the phone turning back to the others, who were sitting on the couch still starring at the box, Which was now sitting in the middle of the living room. Holly still had the duel disk strapped to her arm and was tapping her fingers along it, which only seemed to help aggravate both Chris and Ali, but neither said anything.  
  
"This is boring." Holly moaned standing up and heading out of the living room, everyone else watching with her departure with questions in their eyes.  
  
"Where are you going with that?" Ali asked  
  
"To get my deck. Then to go out and see if this thing actually works. Chris, duel?"  
  
"Four Way!" Amber shouted out happily jumping to her feet, she'd just been looking for a reason to also try out one of the duel disks. Chris and Ali look at each other with a groan.  
  
"You're kidding. Right?" Chris asks slowly standing, already knowing that Amber was serious.  
  
"C'mon! It'll be fun!" Amber said grabbing a duel disk and following Holly out, smiling and giggling back at the other two, daring them to not join in.  
  
With a sigh, Chris got up and retrieved a duel disk of his own, pulling his deck out his pocket, slowly following Holly and Amber out.  
  
"I haven't duelled in ages." Ali laughed to herself as she grabbed the remaining disk and slid her deck into the designated deck slot before walking off to join her friends.  
  
The four stood ready out on the street infront of their house, luckily the street is too narrow for cars and at such a time of night there weren't that many people anyways.  
  
Amber and Holly stood on the actual street, opposite from each other as Chris stood on the curb outside of the house, and Ali on the sidewalk, opposite him. They all raised their arms that had their disks on and grinned,  
  
"Let's duel!" they shouted in unison, pressing the trigger buttons and sending the disks into action. The Holo-projectors shot out, landing and humming quietly and ready. They had just finished rolling a dice to determine who was going first. The order was Amber, Chris, Holly, and attacking first was Ali.  
  
Amber drew her sixth card and giggled placing one card face down in defence position and two cards in the magic/trap zones, and ended her turn.  
  
Chris looked his hand over without much expression, he placed one monster face down and one card in the magic/trap zone, ending his turn.  
  
Holly grinned widely as she looked her hand over, she placed Skilled Dark Magician (1900/1700) in face up attack mode and placed one card in the magic/trap zone shrugging and turning to Ali.  
  
Ali had a dark look on her face that caused everyone to back up a step. "Painful choice."  
  
"Who picks? Whowho?" Amber asked, hopping up and down with glee as she waited hopeful Ali would choose her to pick.  
  
"Holly." Ali replied simply, pulling five cards from her deck and showing them to Holly.  
  
"Damn." Amber sighed looking extremely disappointed, but the moment passed and she was smiling and giggly again almost instantly.  
  
Holly looked like she had just been hit by a truck as she saw the choices that Ali had given her. Sighing she pointed to 'Sangan'.  
  
Ali slipped the rest into the graveyard and summoned Sangan in attack mode, grinning at the others. "Go."  
  
An hour later the last two of the three friends were finishing what was obviously the end of the duel.  
  
Holly had been the first out when she had been hit by three of Ali's massive Fiends, with a grand total of 6800 points of damage when all she had was 6000 life points left.  
  
Ali had been taken out by Chris's Summoning Emperor Dragon, and then paying the thousand life points to use the dragon's special effect, sending the damage right at Ali, who had only 2500lp left after taking Holly down.  
  
Now it stood between Chris and Amber, and Chris's deck was rapidly growing smaller and smaller by each turn, running out of moves and cards he could use while Amber having a higher number of cards in her deck was fine with waiting.  
  
Currently on the field Chris had Spear dragon (1900/0) in attack mode and one trap face down. Amber had Gravity bind, two Servant of Catabolism, and one monster face down in defence mode.  
  
It was now Chris' turn and he had only three turns in which to end the duel or risk being decked. He looked at his hand, it didn't seem very promising at the moment. He had 'Graceful Charity', 'Pot of Greed', and 'Creature Swap'. He knew he couldn't use either of his drawing cards as it would bring him that much closer to decking himself. It seemed that his only possibility of winning was from using creature swap. "I play Creature Swap. Giving you my Spear Dragon and you choose which monster I get."  
  
"Hm...you can have, this one!" Amber said giving Chris her face down monster, making him groan as he peeked to see just what she had given him. A wide grin broke out across his face. It was just the card he would need, giving him another chance at winning. He flipped it over to reveal 'Fibre Jar'. Both of them then took their graveyard, hand, and field and shuffled it all back into their own decks. Now that Amber had nothing to defend herself, Chris, if he pulled anything good, would be able to make an immediate come back.  
  
They both drew their five cards and Chris smiled, even though his hand wasn't the greatest, he could still manage to do something. Unsure of what Chris drew, and rather aware of what it could be, Chris's smiling caused Amber to cringe.

"I summon Luster Dragon in attack mode and attack!" he said before ending his turn, making the current life point count: Amber 7600, and Chris 5000.

Amber drew her next card, a wide grin breaking across her face. "I play pot of greed, then Graceful charity." she said drawing and dumping two cards in her discard pile before turning back to Chris. "Then, I play Exchange." She said walking over to him and picking one card from Chris's hand as he scowled at her. Choosing he takes 'spirit reaper' from her hand as she giggled prancing back to her spot. Removing the two cards from her graveyard to special summon her newly acquired card, Chaos Emperor Dragon, in attack mode. "I'll pay the 1000 life points to blow everything up! Everything goes Boom!"  
  
Chris growled as his hand, and field where destroyed and cleared along with Amber's, and his life points dropped by another 3600 points, bringing him down to only 1400 life points, and Amber with 6600.  
  
His turn and he draws, hoping to make the famous top draw move...he closes

his eyes and waits, opening one and growling inwardly. Nothing he could use at the moment.  
  
Back to Amber, if she pulls anything she could end the turn and win the duel. She looked over the card she had just drawn and her entire expression changed, "What the hell?!" she exclaimed holding the card in her hand and drawing everyone's complete attention to her with interest.  
  
"What is it?" Chris asked slightly puzzled, knowing that Amber wouldn't react that way towards her cards, she would more then likely have scolded the card for not coming sooner or coming too early. "What is it!?" he repeated after no answer had come.

"Chris...have you seen this card before?" Amber asked, stepping forward and forfeiting the end of the duel, and handing a confused Chris the card she had drawn.  
  
He looked it over, his eyes going wide with amazement and awe. "Jackal Knight God Anubis?" he looked it over more closely, it didn't look fake, but then again there were some pretty real looking fakes floating around. "Where did you get this?" He asked, eyeing Amber over the top of the card.  
  
She shook her head and pointed to her disk. "I dunno. Never seen it before in my life. It must have been in the duel disk before I put my deck in."

The four were silent for many moments, looking at the card then at to disks they each had around their arms, a slight chill running down their spines.  
  
"Does any one else feel creeped out right now?" Holly asked shivering and looking around the night sky. Suddenly a rain droplet fell onto her nose and she looked at the others. "Hey, it's raining!" she yelped, trying to keep her deck from getting wet, the others also glanced at the sky as the rain went from light drizzle to pouring, pounding down on the streets, causing the four to dash for shelter and warmth.  
  
"What odd weather..." Holly muttered as she was the last one in and locked the door behind her. Running her fingers threw her wet hair she flicked on the hall light.  
  
"I don't know about you, but I'm actually looking forward to this tournament now." Chris said with a grin, as he took his disk off tossing it, complete with his deck, onto a chair and grabbed a towel to dry himself.  
  
"Me too. I want to know what's going on and why someone would do this to us..." Holly replied as the other two nodded in agreement. This tournament would prove to be most interesting, even if they had been sent into it by some unknown person.  
  
Amber stood silently at the window just watching as the lightning and thunder made a loud ruckus.  
  
Ali flopped onto a chair and growled trying to pat the water out of her hair.  
  
"You alright, Amber?" Holly asked sitting on the floor in her usual spot, pulling her disk off and looking her cards over.  
  
"Ya... Just watching the rain." She replied quietly  
  
"Wonder how that card got into your deck...Ali and I where going through our decks while we sat out and neither of us have random cards..." Holly said, looking back at her friend.  
  
"I almost decked, and there was no unknown card in my deck either." Chris said placing his towel aside.  
  
The room was silent and serious for the few minutes as they all thought about what had happened over the course of the day again.


	5. Lets Dance!

_" Great Pharaohs of the past, protect us now as danger lurks in every day...."_

_-Prayer to the Pharaohs_

It was coming down to the very end of the duel as Holly ended her turn by summoning a monster in attack mode. She looked at her opponent, but couldn't make out their facial features as they where shrouded in shadows, this felt very odd to her. However, that wasn't her main concern as she knew that she was about to lose this duel. She was down to 300 life points while her opponent still had 4000, she hadn't managed to do that much damage to him at all, which wasn't like her deck, it was built to do as much damage as possible with as little time as possible.

The shadowed opponent summoned a monster from the graveyard, Summoned Skull, it had more attack power then Holly's and with a swift attack, both her monster and her life points were destroyed.

Holly stood there for a moment, feeling very weak as if she had just had her life energy zapped from her, there was something not right with this duel...not right at all.

"Penalty Game." Holly looked up at the sound of her opponent's voice to find them pointing a finger at her.

Suddenly Holly began to fall back without actually falling, that's when she realized that she was not falling, but shrinking at a rapid speed. A few moments later she was laying on her back, wondering what was going on and what was happening to her. She found that she couldn't speak or move, which scared her more then anything else at the moment. Then she saw the shadowy figure of her opponent loom over her, a dark laughter ringing in her ears.

"The Magician's Guardian. When this card is destroyed, remove all Magicians from play. They cannot be special summoned back by any magic, trap, or monster effect at any time." They laughed again, this time louder and more wickedly then before. Then grabbing Holly, who was now the _'Magician's Guardian'_ card, they held the top of the card with both hands before tearing it in half with a swift flick of the wrist.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Holly sat straight up in her bed, breathing heavily. It took her a few moments to realize where she was and that she had just had a nightmare. Carefully, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and stared down at the floor. "What was that all about? and why did I get turned into a card?" she was deep in thought over her dream when a sudden loud knock at the door made her jump out of her skin.

"Holly! Are you alright!?" Came Chris' voice through the door, Holly felt bad as she knew that she must have woken him up.

"I'm good thanks. It was just a bad dream!" She called back to him as she stood up and checked the time on her digital clock. It was 6am, but she knew that she couldn't get back to sleep now, not after that dream.

As she walked across her small room she heard Chris mumble something before retreating back to his room for the remainder of the morning. Holly yawned widely while pulling on her usual garments of a plane black sleeveless slinky top, and black pants. She glanced at her duel disk which was laying on her desk where she had put it the previous night, it seemed normal enough, but she couldn't help but feel a strange shiver down her spine when she thought of how her and her friends acquired the duel disks. With a shrug Holly grabbed her note book and pen and made her way to sit in the kitchen to write in her story.

When she got there, she saw that Ali was already up and reading one of the books she had borrowed from the library. Ali raised her eyes from the book as Holly flopped down on a chair across from her friend.

"How long have you been up?" Holly asked with another yawn as Ali put her book down to reach for her cup of tea.

"About Ten minutes." she replied before sipping her tea and watching a now grinning holly.

"You couldn't sleep either?"

"Who could after that scream you let out?"

"Oh, you heard me?"

"I'd have to be deaf not to have." Ali rubbed her ear as she said this. Holly began giggling madly for some reason, causing Ali to stop and look at her like she had lost her mind,

"Poor Chris. His room's right beside mine."

"Heh, I heard him get up. He didn't sound too pleased."

Holly grinned wider, she then leapt to her feet and opened the cupboard to grab herself a cup for some tea as well. "What do you make of all this?" she asked while pouring sugar and milk into her tea and stirring it rather loudly.

Ali sighed and looked out the balcony window, silent for a moment, before shrugging and returning her gaze to Holly. "I really don't know. Suppose we'll just have to wait and see what happens." Ali frowned slightly as she finished the last of her tea, and reopened her book to where she had dog-eared the page she had been on.

Holly stood holding her tea cup in one hand, she watched Ali for a moment before opening the sliding glass door of the balcony and stepping out onto it. It was small, just enough for two people to stand on it, facing the street, she looked down at remembered the four way duel the friends had had just hours before. It was still chilly, but the sun peeked out from some white clouds, making the rain from last night dry up quickly.

Holly was lost in thoughts and didn't notice that she was leaning over the edge of the balcony until someone grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back, surprised Holly dropped her cup.

"What!?" she turned to see that Ali had left her book and had pulled holly back, Ali didn't look too pleased as she had to get up from the table.

"What are you doing!?" she demanded her face slightly pink from the sudden dash from the table to Holly, who was looking down at the street were the broken mug now lay.

"I lost my tea..."

"I think you've lost more then that." Ali sighed, letting go of holly's shoulder. "Now, what were you doing?"

"What, what did it look like I was doing?"

"Like you were about to fall off the balcony."

"I was that far over the railing?"

"Yes!"

Ali and Holly walked back to the kitchen and both sat down with a slight sigh,

"I was just recalling our duel...." Holly said as she looked at the empty tea pot letting out a whimper, causing to Ali roll her eyes and get up to make some more tea.

"Stop being strange." was all Ali said as Holly grinned happily, ignoring the fact that she had been really close to falling over the railing of the balcony and becoming a pancake.

Later that day, after Amber and Chris had both woken up at their own pace, the four were deciding on what to do as tomorrow was the big day, the day of the tournament.

Chris had decided that he would stay home and work on his deck for the remainder of the day as he wasn't sure of the skill level of the people in this city, he assumed even the weakest duellists could be a good challenge.

Ali was going to calm her nerves by returning to the library, she had already finished half the books she had taken out and wanted to take out a few others she had seen, but was unable to borrow due to the fact that she only had a temporary library account, until her card arrived in the mail, so she could only borrow a few books at a time.

Amber grabbed her bag and was going to go get some more Pocky because she was starting to run low and, she had seen a flavour she hadn't tried before.

That left Holly. She told the others that she was just going to wander about for a while, going for long walks always seemed to calm her down, and the fact that she wanted to go to the museum because they had a new Egypt exhibit made her giddy. So the four went their ways, planning to be home before 7pm as they were going to have a large celebratory dinner, and go over any unanswered questions they might have amongst themselves.

Amber was walking down the street, from the corner store where she had picked up more stock of Pocky in various flavours. It was still too early to go home and she wasn't in the mood to go back yet, so she decided she would wander around a bit more and see what she could find.

Pocky stick sticking halfway out of her mouth as she spotted a small arcade building, familiar loud music blaring from inside, she dashed towards it, hoping that her ears heard right and that they had Dance, Dance Revolution.

A crowd was gathered outside, but none of them seemed to be bothered about going inside, curious Amber joined the crowd and tried to see what they were looking at.

"What's going on?" she asked the nearest boy, he looked at her like he had never seen a girl before and returned to whatever was going on.

The rudeness of the boy made amber slightly annoyed, he was younger then her, so she figured he was probably being a normal boy and being a real pain in the neck. Swallowing the pocky stick she turned to another, older boy, who was more around her age, and asked him the same question. This boy looked like he had been in a few fights, but that didn't seem like a reason to not ask her question. He looked her over before grinning at her.

"Ya. There's a boy who's having a dance contest with some girl, and she seems to be kicking his butt."

Amber smiled thanking the boy before she made her way towards the front of the crowd again. She had to see, then maybe she'd challenge the winner. The crowd parted slightly as she get closer to the front, she grinned when the dancers came into her line of sight, that girl mentioned previous was her friend, Holly, who was in the middle of a dance contest with some tall guy.

"Go Holly!" Amber called out, not caring that between the crowd and the loud music that Holly hadn't heard her. The boy Holly was competing against had and said something to Holly, who made a face back at him.

"d'at your friend?" asked a little boy, looking up at Amber. He had chocolate all over his face and held a melting chocolate bar in his little hands.

"Yep." Amber replied smiled at the kid, a happy carefree glow in her eyes.

"She's quite good." came the remark of some other boy. Amber grinned to herself. Before she had come along, Holly had never even thought of playing D.D.R, and it was with her help that Holly had become any good at the game, though Amber was still the best between the two of them. There was a loud noise to signal that the boy had lost, Holly looked thrilled, though she was really red in the face from dancing for so long.

She turned and saw Amber and was about to say something when suddenly the boy swung his arm around and hit Holly, knocking her off of the dance pad and onto the hard cement floor. There was a unified gasp as Holly let out a squeal of pain, the crowd watched in shock for a moment. Amber had gone from hyper to serious faster then the blink of an eye, leaping for the boy.

"Get your mitts off friend you ass!" She shouted angry that this boy had, in frustration of losing to a girl, hit Holly to make himself seem the better of the two. One of the few things that Amber couldn't stand for, watching her friends get bullied or hurt by others.

The boy looked shocked to see Amber coming at him, but his attention was divided as someone else had leapt from the crowd and was coming at him.

"Don't you know its disrespectful to hit a lady!" came the second person's voice, they had a strong accent that didn't really sound Japanese, but that only registered in the back of Ambers mind as she paused her advance still glaring dangerously.

"Get out of this! It doesn't involve you!" the boy from the game yelled.

"You go hurting people for the sake of being a poor loser and it does involve me. Especially if I see you doing it!" came the response.

Amber looked over the situation over, slightly surprised that someone else, some complete stranger, had come out of the crowd to help Holly. Amber stepped over to Holly, who was holding the elbow she had landed on, and helped her to her feet.

The two locked eyes for a moment as they listened to the two boys argue, they seemed to be thinking something along the same lines. 'Why did that voice sound so familiar?' but neither said anything as they turned their attention back to the two boys now yelling at each other overtop the music of the game. The crowd was edging away but was attracting more people,

"Shove off Wheeler!" Both Amber and Holly looked at each other, "Wheeler?" they both said under their breath, glancing over at the fighting boys again. Holly's eyes wide looking like she had just seen a ghost and Amber just blinking a couple of times with that blank look of curiosity on her face. Was the boy who had come to Holly's aid the same Wheeler the two girls were thinking of?


End file.
